 You are clear for launch. And with that, shut down your visors, O2 on and prepare for ignition to O2. You can copy that and um... Hey Mr. Roushoff here. Alright, so we have left the Western Hemisphere and we're beginning our unit on Europe. In this video, what we're going to do is we're going to focus on the physical geography of Europe. Specifically, we're going to identify significant landforms of Europe and their waterways that go through and surround Europe. Now before we go any further, let's orient ourselves. We find Europe, most of Europe, in the North Eastern Hemispheres and we find that that it is the stretches between the Atlantic Ocean and the West, all the way to the Euro Mountains in Russia and the East. And then from the North, we go from the Arctic Ocean all the way down to the Mediterranean Sea in the South. Now, Europe is not a very large continent. In fact, it is the second smallest continent to the world right after that of Australia. But technically, Europe actually isn't a continent at all. In fact, we actually see that Europe is a peninsula of peninsulas. There are six major peninsulas that define many of the countries of Europe. There is the Iberian Peninsula. It is made up of Spain and Portugal. In the North, there's the Jullib Peninsula where we find Denmark. Then there is the Scandinavian Peninsula, which is the landmass which we find Norway and Sweden. Now, if we go down to the South, we find the Apennide Peninsula. That's the one that looks like a boot in the Mediterranean. This is the peninsula that makes up Italy. Then we find the Balkan Peninsula, which includes Greece. And then there is the Crimean Peninsula that just out into the Black Sea. It was once part of Ukraine until a few years ago when Russia invaded and took it over. Now, peninsulas are surely important to Europe, especially since we find that itself is a peninsula, but so are islands. We see several important islands in the Northeast. Just across the English Channel from France is the Great Britain. To its west, you will find the Island of Ireland. And together these all make up what is known as the British Isles. Now, to the Northwest of Ireland is Iceland and to the West is Greenland. Of course, we might be cheating a little bit here, because although Greenland belongs to Denmark, technically, geologically, Greenland is actually part of the North American continent. Now, if we go down into the South in the Mediterranean, there are several islands of note. Of course, where I am in this picture is part of France. And to the South is Sardinia, which is a territory of Italy. Also, an territory of Italy is Sicily. And this essentially is kind of like the rock through the boot of the Apennine Penissa. Looks like it's kicking. And further to the east, we find Crete, which is the second and the largest populated island of Greece. Now, islands do have advantages, especially if you are in island countries such as Great Britain. First, since islands are normally surrounded by water, they have easy access to the ocean. This allows for increased maritime trade and other resources such as fishing. Second, islands are also more difficult to invade because of the difficulty of crossing the ocean with an army. An example, again, is Great Britain. Now, while they were invaded a couple of times in their history, their island status is what has protected them from being invaded by Hitler during World War II. In the early days of sea travel, getting from one point to another took actually a long time. Ships several hundred years ago were really nothing more than just big boats and they couldn't carry a lot of supplies. Because of this, islands became stepping stones for European travel. Take the Vikings. These were the people of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. They used to British Isles, Iceland, and Greenland to get to Canada and North America around the year 1000. Now, despite the United States and Europe being in roughly the same land size, because Europe is a peninsula, a peninsula of peninsulas remember, it has nearly three times the amount of coastline than that of the United States. This drives the importance of the seas to Europe. The coastline provides hundreds of natural harbors that are located near mouths of navigable rivers. These harbors and rivers allow trade to move into the interior of Europe by ship from anywhere in the world. Surrounding Europe are several important seas. The only problem with many of these seas is that travel between them often means you must move through straits and channels. As straits are narrow bodies of water that connect larger bodies of water. Channels are as much the same thing as the straits, but are larger than what straits are. Now, straits and channels are very important because whoever controls these waterways control the shipping and the trade that goes through them. We call these choke points. In the north, the Baltic Sea is surrounded by nine countries, which not only facilitate trade between these countries, but opens up to the Atlantic Ocean through the North Sea. Now, connecting the Baltic and the North Sea are the Danish Straits. The Danish capital of Copenhagen started off as an important castle that controlled ship traffic between these two seas. Now, the North Sea also has the importance of being the site of rich oil reserves that provide money and revenue to both the United Kingdom and to Norway. Now, while it's not a sea, the English Channel connects a southern portion of the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. This channel has had a significant place in Europe's geography, as would-be invaders from France would attempt to cross the channel to invade Great Britain. It would also be this waterway over which allies launched the D-Day invasion of World War II in an effort to defeat the Nazi Germany. Now, moving further south around the Iberian Peninsula, we find the Strait of Gibraltar. Now, this strait is only eight miles wide, but all the ships traveling between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea must travel through this choke point. This is the reason why the Strait of Gibraltar was at the site of numerous important naval battles fighting for control of this vital choke point. Now, the Mediterranean Sea has served as a trade route for the European civilizations for thousands of years and still is today. The sea to the east of Italy, or the Appalachian Peninsula, is the Adriatic Sea. This was important to the Byzantine Empire and to the merchants of the city of Venice. Now, the Aegean Sea is off the coast of Greece and Turkey. It is also the birthplace of two ancient civilizations, the Minoans and the Mycenaeans, which would later bring about the ancient Greek civilization. Now, from the Aegean Sea, we can travel east through Straits and reach what is known as the Black Sea. Now, to make the passage between the Aegean and Black Sea, you must go first through the Daniel Straits, the CMMR, and then the Bosphorus Strait. These two straits have been important to trade for thousands of years. The Trojan War was fought 2,500 years ago near the ancient city of Troy in order to control the Darnel Straits. Now, it was on the banks of the Bosphorus Strait that Constantinople, we now know this as Istanbul, was built. This allowed the Byzantine Empire to be able to grow in power and wealth because they were able to control the trade between Europe and Asia. Now, the Black Sea was vitally important to the Soviet Union and Russia for trade and naval power as it was one of the only warm water ports that Russia had. Now, it is this importance to the Black Sea that is one of the reasons that Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula that juts into the Black Sea. Now, the last sea that we see on this map is the Caspian Sea, which is the largest enclosed inland body of water on Earth. Now, it's easy to see how sea access for trade allowed Western Europe to develop as a colonial, economic and naval power in the world. But then there are rivers. Because of the trade that rivers provide, many countries' large cities and capitals are found on European rivers. For example, running right through the British capital of London is the River Thim. Now, back on the European mainland, we find the Sin River that runs right through Paris, France. Now, moving a little bit further to the east, there is the Rhine River, which is the most important river in Germany and a very major trade route. Now, down in Italy, we find the Tiber that runs right through Rome. Now, the longest river in Europe is the Danube, which for centuries has linked many different countries in Eastern Europe. And the fourth largest river in Europe is the Nipper, which runs right through Ukraine's capital cave and then down into the Black Sea. Then finally, we arrive at the Volga River in Russia, which provides shipping access to the interior of Russia to the Caspian Sea. Now, unfortunately, 15 European countries are landlocked. The problem, of course, with being landlocked is that your country can't control the same trade opportunities as other countries who have access to the sea. This can lead to a slower economic growth. An example is Moldova, which is the second poorest country on the continent. Now, this didn't hold back Switzerland, though. Switzerland has located an app which has protected it from invasion and has actually become fairly rich. And where are the Alps? Well, let's look at a few of the mountain ranges in Europe. Between France and Spain, we find the Pyrenees Mountains, which was an obstacle that hindered trade and communication for many centuries between Spain and France. And it's the reason why the Spanish and French cultures developed differently. This is a perfect example of cultural divergence at work. And now, if you find Italy at the top of the country, you will find the Alps. The Alps also stretches across parts of France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Slovenia. These mountains reached up to 15,000 feet and were formed by the continental plate of Italy slamming into the European continental plate. Thus, it was formed by convergent folding. Now, to the east of the Alps, separated by the Danube River, are the Kapathians. They run through the country of Sulakia, southeast of Ukraine, and Romania. Now, these are relatively low mountains with their highest peak at just lower than 9,000 feet, but they have lots of wildlife. In fact, one third of all Europe's plant species are actually found in the Carpathian Mountains. And then there are two mountain ranges that defines the boundary of Europe itself. The first of these forms, the eastern border between Europe and Asia in Russia. These are the Euro mountains that stretch from the Arctic Ocean to the Caspian Sea. Now, while the Mediterranean forms the southern boundary of most of Europe, in the east between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, we find the Caucasus Mountains, which forms a portion of the southern boundary between Europe and Asia. Now, although there are many mountain ranges in Europe, it isn't all mountains. The North European plain stretches from France all the way to the Euro Mountains. With several rivers cutting through this plain, the rich soil of the region has made it an important agricultural region that supports the population of Europe. All right, so far we have reviewed the significant landforms of Europe and our next lesson, what we're going to do is we're going to look at the climate of Europe and some of the human environmental interactions that we find on the European continent. Until then, keep on learning.